New Beginning, New Life….
So much has happened since last time I blogged…looks like that was just before Spring Break! Wow, I guess I have been gone for awhile. I’ve just been busy with too much or was just too lazy on my down time to blog. I’m just hanging out in Milwaukee at Alterra. I gots some time so here it goes.
Well lets start with Spring Break. It was my 8th time on the trip and my 6th time coordinating it. I believe it was the best one yet! Alot more new faces came on the trip which was great! I tried some new approaches to the trip and it sounds like they worked out great! I got a lot of great comments and suggestions that I’m definitely thinking about coordinating it next year as well! Maybe I may just put on the UW Cycling Spring Break every year! I have to at least go on 10 total trips…thats only 2 more. I think thats doable before I have to start a real life. I ended up with just over 30 hrs in the saddle and 500+ miles. I was pretty spent after that trip.
The rest of the year has been crazy with racing, training and just generally riding. I’ve been in 30+ races so far this year. Some big ones and a lot of the WCA series. I have some top 10′s and got 12th overall in the Cat 2 series at ToAD. I had some bad luck and some bad news on the 5th day of the tour that kind of crushed my world…I would stop eating and sleeping the next couple days because of this said news. I’m surprised that I even was able to finish the rest of the crits. All of that dropped me down in the results. But my buddy Dallas snatched up 2nd overall in the Cat 2 series! No race really sticks out in my head, but I can say I’ve been a lot more aggressive this year and have seen how much my ability has grown.
I had some forced time off the bike after ToAD. I took the week after ToAD easy and started back up with training the next weekend with a 5 hr ride out west of Madison. What I didn’t know was that my saddle was broken on one side and my right hip was then lower than my left. About 1.5 hrs into the ride my right knee started to hurt a little bit. By the time I got out to Blue Mounds my knee felt like it was about to explode. I had to still ride home to Madison from there. With a pace of 12 mph and pedaling with only my left leg I somehow made it home alive. For the next 3 weeks I would be off the bike with intense pain to my right knee whenever I rode. I had to ride to work though because it was my only transportation and that would irritate it. Standing on it for an 8 hr shift wasn’t quite helping either. I let the knee heal naturally by eating anti-inflammatory foods and taking glucosamine and ibuprofen. Its at 100% again thank goodness and I’m back into the swing of things and training hard. My power is definitely up from the forced time away. Maybe it was suppose to be.
In other news, I decided to go down to Part-time at the coffee shop at the middle of May. Don’t want to be there forever and wanted time to focus on racing and training. Its been good. At times I worried about money and I was searching for other jobs after the change. But it felt great after a bit. I was still able to write the schedule and I could ask off whenever I wanted to with no type of responsibility. My boss still treats me like I am Head Barista by telling me all the current events of the store. I’m still the one that knows way too much about the job and Steep&Brew. August 20th will be 3 years with the company. Definitely time for a change. I applied to be a bank teller. They usually have a good amount of job growth opportunities.
In April I was accepted to UW-Stevens Point for their graduate program in Nutritional Sciences. At that time I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back to Stevens Point, my home town. Who wants to go back to their little hometown for grad school? Well at that time I had a different future in mind and then things changed which made me see that I NEED to head back to grad school and do this for myself. If I ever want to do something with my life, like get a real job I’ll need a Masters and possibly even higher education. I wish I would have been accepted to UW Madison, but it didn’t happen and I’ve accepted that. I realized how hard it actually is to get into grad school though…and grad school is grad school! So a couple weeks ago I confirmed my acceptance to UWSP. My graduate class will only be 17 students. Not many! So I’m very lucky I got in somewhere. I’ve wanted to go back to school for quite some time and, well, I finally get to live the student life again! Exciting! I start school on Sept 6th. I have 1 class a day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Pretty easy. However I still don’t want to live in Stevens Point….so I’ll be living in Madison still. How can I do this without a car? Well…..
I finally bought a nicer car! I searched on craigslist for quite awhile for the right deal. Thought I found a couple, but they weren’t right. With such a tight budget and a need for something nicer and made in the 2000′s I thought it was going to be impossible. Until just 2 weeks ago. I saw an ad for a 2003 dodge stratus in Cottage Grove, WI (right next door to Madison). I called the guy up and made an appointment to go see the car the next day. I test rode it and it felt amazing. It felt like a brand new car and with low miles. Somehow I was the first person to see it. Another person was coming to see the car tonight, but I knew this was the car. I made a deal, but didn’t have cash because the banks were closed (it was Sunday). We set up a time on Monday and the car was mine! I’ve been very happy with the car and have had no problems with it. I think it was the right purchase and now I can say “I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS” (thanks Will Ferrel). So with this car I will be commuting up to Stevens Point on Mondays and then coming back to Madison Wednesday nights. I would lose my sanity if I would live in Stevens Point. So this is a good decision for me and I don’t mind the decision.
Crazy thing about the car is this was all luck. I just recently bought a new mountain bike (well a used one, but new to me) 2 weeks before that. I got a 2007/2008 Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper for a killer deal! Nothing wrong with it, upgraded drivetrain to Sram X.0/X.9 components and not even a nick in the frame. Perfect! Another excellent purchase and find! Its been nice getting back to my roots. I suck at MTB’ng right now, but I am improving each time I go out. Well, the weekend I got the car I was actually suppose to head to Franklin, WI for a WORS race. I had a ride set up and just had to work Saturday morning with preriding on Sat and the race on Sun. I saw the ad for the car on Friday night and I knew that car was going to go fast for the price it was sitting at. What do I do? Well, right as I’m done with work my ride to the WORS race cancels. I was disappointed, but then again it gave me time to go check out the car. Crazy how things work! So new car and new bike!
I also just got a new iPhone. Our old provider sucks and so we went to AT&T. I was just going to go with a Samsung Flight phone, but they were out. They had an iPhone 3Gs for super cheap so we went with that. I feel like a grown up with that phone. Its definitely fun to use!
On to current events. I was contacted by Specialized bikes to be in another photo shoot with them out at Camrock yesterday. Then they asked if I could also be in a shoot the day before in Milwaukee. The MKE shoot had me in a business suit playing the corporate commuter…in 90+ deg humid weather. 3 hrs of that will destroy anyone, but it was a blast! Camrock was a bit cooler and fun on a recreational MTB. Well, I may be in another shoot for them either next week or the next down in Chicago to shoot video for one of their bikes. (Modeling + Cycling) x Getting paid to do it = AWESOMENESS!
The last thing: I’m doing an intern consultant gig with the American Lung Association in Wisconsin (ALA) and its been keeping me busy. I’m helping promote and recruit for their “Fight For Air Ride” on Aug 27th. I’m also helping with logistics for the ride, since they have never put on a bike event. I’m honored that I was chosen to help out to put this on. I was also on The Morning Blend talk show this morning to promote the ride! First TV talk show appearance for me! That was nerve wracking, but once I got on camera I was fine.
Life has been treating me very well lately and I’m happy where its going. It’s feeling like a new life and I’m loving it! I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Ciao….
Waitey
